Haim Hazan 
Managing Change in Old Age 
The Control of Meaning in an Institutional Setting

This book is an ethnographic study of an old age home in Israel that sheds light on the existential experience of elderly retirees. Hazan looks carefully at the universal concerns of old age, specifically examining the nature of everyday life in the institutional setting. He shows the workings of the micropolitics of control in an old age home and the tension between controlling dwindling resources and sustaining life-long meaning for residents. He also effectively brings out distinctive features of the Israeli situation, its cultural and bureaucratic codes. Hazan’s study of the life cycle, based in the anthropology of process, is a senstive portrayal of the dynamics of institutionalized elderly in a complex society.

Table of Content

List of Tables




Acknowledgments




Preface




Introduction—On Managing Change in Old Age




1. The Setting




2. Spheres of Relevance




3. Fields of Control




4. The Discussion Group




5. The Handicrafts Group




6. The Synagogue Group




7. Conclusion: Managing Change—A Synchronic Perspective




Postscript: Accounts and Accountability—Reporting Old Age




Notes




References




Index

About the author

Haim Hazan is in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University.